Welcome to Edition #20 (18 March 2004)

Welcome to the (slightly delayed) Irish SciFi News Newsletter Number 20.

First, some more slight changes to the e-mail version of the newsletter. What I’ve been doing up to now is, whenever I come across new events, I’ve written a piece about them, and added the relevant information to the calendar of events at the end of the page. From now on I’m also going to put the URL for the event, if one is available, which I really should have been doing all along. So, on to the news...

Voice of the Fire Competition

The winner of the Alan Moore ‘Voice of the Fire’ competition is Éanna Mac Criostail, of Collon, Co. Louth (See? Not just Dublin based!), and he’ll be getting his book in the near future. There were 16 entries altogether, which was very good, so I’ll continue to send the competitions out as separate mails from the newsletters. Many thanks to everyone who entered, and especially to all the people who took the time to say a few kind words. I like doing the newsletter, but it’s nice to hear from people occasionally that they enjoy it too. Finally, especial thanks to Dublin’s Forbidden Planet for sponsoring the competition in the first place. I couldn’t have done it without their support.

Dublin SciFi Awards

As mentioned briefly last time ‘round, Frank Darcy is once more running the Dublin SciFi Awards. There are categories for Best & Worst Film, Best & Worst TV, Best and Worst News, but, tragically, still no award for Best SF Newsletter....

You can see all the categories and all the nominations so far at Frank’s website.

Feature Articles

Now, as you may have noticed, I’ve started sending out one-off articles about various aspects of Irish fandom, and especially the things that have some bearing on the main substance of this newsletter. I’m particularly indebted to Brian Nisbet for leading the way, with his excellent piece on Gaming in Ireland, which you can now see online here.

The plan is to do a series of pieces like this, and to put them up along with Brian’s piece, so that we have a easily accessible resource for all aspects of Irish fandom. More articles are on the way, with subjects like Irish Comics, The SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), SF Conventions, Irish Small Press, and whatever else seems appropriate, and that I can persuade someone to write about! If you’ve any ideas for this, or want to volunteer, please let me know at this address.

TAFF

TAFF, or the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, was created in 1953 for the purpose of providing funds to bring well-known and popular fans familiar to those on both sides of the ocean across the Atlantic.

This year, the two contenders hoping to be voted to be the 2004 TAFF representative are Anders Holmström and James Bacon, who are hoping to win a trip to Noreascon 4, in Boston in September 2004. Anders is from Sweden, but is well known as a convention attendee in the UK and here in Ireland. James Bacon hardly needs an introduction, as he’s been involved in all aspects of SF fandom, both here in Ireland and, increasingly, in Britain. He is in charge of SproutLore, the Robert Rankin fan club, as well as running the James White Award, and having been much involved in the organisation of They Came and Shaved Us. More information about this year’s TAFF race can be found at the TAFF 2004 website, and about TAFF more generally here.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse is the third full day Buffy convention to be held in Belfast, and run by UT Events, and has as guests Andy Hallett, who played the Lorne character in Angel, & Clare Kramer, who played Glorificus (Glory) the Hell God in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The date and time are:

And you can find their website by clicking here.

Seen in Shop Windows (I)

I should point out that Paramount don’t run conventions, and the people involved in the two highly successful Trek cons of about 10 years back were quite amused to see and hear of the posters, and mails were send to put the person right. The posters are still there, though.

Seen in Shop Windows (II)

A poster has appeared advertising Havoc 21, "The definitive Irish bi-monthly anthology." As far as I know this is meant to be a comic, and appears to be the same comic and the same people who were the subject of this article in the Sunday Business Post on the 7th of September 2003.The comic has yet to appear, though.

I should point out that the Eugene Byrne involved with this is not the same one as the author Eugene Byrne, who is a good friend of this newsletter, and whose website is at www.eugenebyrne.co.uk.

Convention News

Not a lot to announce here! Mecon has come and gone, and reports suggest that numbers were low, and that a few of the announced guests didn’t appear, unfortunately. Dominicon is on this coming weekend, and I hope to see a few of you there. The Dominicon website is at www.dominicon.ie. There’s no news from Octocon, so I’ll just have to concentrate on P-CON again!

P-CON has another guest confirmed in the person of fantasy writer Maggie Furey, a very popular local resident. Although originally from England, she now lives in the heart of Wicklow. She’ll be accompanied, as ever, by her husband Eric.

Other attendees at P-CON will be members of the Irish SCA, or Society for Creative Anachronism, who are, more or less, medieval recreationists. The SCA have been active in Ireland since 1986, but have kept a very low profile. They’ve decided that they want to get a higher public awareness, and think P-CON would be the ideal place to do it. Look out for an article here soon about the SCA, which will explain what they’re about in greater detail.

Also at the con will be Maken, who will be reporting the results of her thesis on Fan Fiction and Slash, that peculiar literary genre almost exclusive to SF TV fans, and which should make a fascinating panel.

And Ian has finished the new version of the P-CON website, which you can see at www.slovobooks.com/phoenix. Someone suggested that it’s the nicest looking convention website he’s ever seen. Almost worthy of an award, perhaps, which leads me to...

The Wooden Rockets Award

The polls are open for the 2004 Wooden Rocket Awards, and are to be voted on by online science fiction and fantasy fans. They have all sorts of categories, like Best Online Magazine, which was won last year by The Alien Online, or (ahem) Best Convention/Society Site, which Ian’s excellent work on P-CON might just qualify for. More information and how to vote at the Wooden Rockets Award site.

Jack the Ripper in Dún Laoghaire

There’s a stage version of Jack the Ripper, by David Byrne, on in Dun Laoghaire:

Personally, I think it was Francis Tumblety, but you may not agree with me!

Table Quiz

Many thanks to all the people who turned up for the most recent table quiz on the 17th of February. Especial thanks, as ever, to all our sponsors, who include Forbidden Planet, The 3rd Place, Yellow Brick Road, Crow Corner Comics, and The Secret Book & Record Shop. The next sci-fi table quiz will be in May. The details are:

Questions, on everything under the sun will, as usual, be by myself, and there will be lots of prizes. All are welcome.

Thirteen Magazine

There’s a new Horror/SciFi magazine in the UK, called Thirteen Magazine. This started in January 2004, and they are hoping to do 13 issues a year (one a month, plus an extra one for Halloween), with 13 stories in each. Not only that, but there’s a prize of STG£113 each month for the best story.

There are a few Irish authors with stories in future issues, including my self, in the March issue. This is my first real magazine publication, so I’m very happy indeed! Their website is at www.thirteenmagazine.co.uk, and they’re looking for both submissions and subscriptions.

In Brief

• The most recent issue of Albedo 1 is now out, and should be in all good bookshops now. This is their first issue with a colour cover, and is also the first issue that is square bound, or perfect bound, so the A1 boys are very proud of themselves indeed. More information at the Albedo 1 website.
• The Galway Early Music Festival takes place, as you might imagine, in Galway, from the 20th to the 23rd of May 2004. This has nothing to do with SF, but sounds interesting, so I’m putting it in! Their website is at www.galwayearlymusic.com.
• Someone has put up a site for aspiring Irish teen witches. You can find it at www.teenfainne.com.
• Before any of you start to call the writer of this newsletter a mephitic cunctator, and writing threnodies at its desuetude because you’re missing its demulcent gallimaufry, its foudroyant salmagundi, fear not. Along with my pyknic myrmidon I am ensuring that its concinnity will be before you again soon. What am I talking about? Well, I’ve been doing the Schmies Vocabulary Test, which you can find here, and got a score of 167. The above are just some of the words I *didn’t* understand!
• There is a new Irish SF resource, called iSci, on one of the Yahoo! Groups. You can find it at groups.yahoo.com/group/iSci/.
• There’s a Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament in Huntstown Community Centre, Dublin 15, on Saturday the 20th March, starting at 10 AM. Tickets, available at the door, cost €8. More information on the website.
• Irish author David Murphy, one of the stalwarts behind Albedo 1, has a new website for his work. Click here for David Murphy's website.
• Next month, the Science Walk returns, along with news of an American publisher named after a Dublin street, and a comprehensive piece about the DMZ, who have been having troubles of their own of late.
• If any of you are at Dominicon in Maynooth at the weekend, I’ll be there, in the company of the lovely Deirdre, flying the flag for P-CON and Irish SciFi News, as well as selling a few books. Come over and say hello!
• Finally, congratulations to Ashling and Hugh McSweeney, who became the proud parents of a baby girl, Tara, born on Friday the 5th of March 2004, at 7 lb 8 oz. All our love from Deirdre and myself to the lot of them!

Best wishes,
Pádraig Ó Méalóid
Irish SciFi News

Breaking News #1 (11 May): Irish Sci-Fi News Quiz postponed.

Due to the illness of Deirdre Walsh (although she is well on the way to a full recovery as of the time of writing), the 5th Irish Sci-Fi News Quiz scheduled for the 11th May has had to be cancelled. However it has been rescheduled and will now take place on the 15th June in the Brokers' Bar, Dame Street, Dublin 2, with a table of 4 still costing € 24.

Breaking News #2 (16 May):Gay Trekkies' 3rd Birthday Party